Angulo stops Gomez in first round

If Alfredo Angulo hoped to knock off some ring rust with his scheduled 12-round bout against Joseph Gomez on Saturday he should have picked a sturdier opponent for his first fight in 13 months.

The 29-year-old junior middleweight contender, who hasn't fought since scoring a first-round TKO of Joachim Alcine last July due to visa problems, made quick work of Gomez, stopping the the New Mexico-based journeyman in the first round with a straight right-left hook to the midsection followed by a cuffing right cross to the back of the head.

Gomez (17-5-1, 8 knockouts), a loser in three of his last four bouts (two by stoppage), was dropped to all fours and didn't appear to try to get up once his legs were taken by Angulo's body shot-rabbit punch combination.

The quickie KO was the first fight for Angulo (20-1, 17 KOs) under the Golden Boy Promotions banner. The Los Angeles-based promotional company recently signed the 2004 Mexican Olympian, who had a bitter split with his former longtime promoter Gary Shaw.

Angulo had advanced from an unknown Mexican brawler to a ShoBox regular to a Boxing After Dark player and finally an HBO Championship Boxing-level fighter in the span of three years and 11 bouts (which included a decision loss to Kermit Cintron in 2009) under Shaw's promotional gudiance. He seemed poised for a high-profile title bout last year, and indeed, his promblems with Shaw stemmed from a money dispute over a shot at middleweight champ Sergio Martinez.

However, Angulo's visa problems, which prevent him from fighting in the U.S., made the beef with Shaw a moot point.

Angulo's management believe they can quickly resolve the entertaining fighter's visa issues. If so, it will be interesting to see how quickly Golden Boy Promotions can help Angulo regain the momentum he had with Shaw.

Regardless of when and where Angulo fights again, he needs to be in with stiffer competition than Gomez.